An uproarious new novel in the tradition of Robert Asprin and Terry Pratchett!
For someone who's immortal, Never Dead Ned manages to die with alarming frequency--he just has the annoying habit of rising from the grave. But this soldier might be better dead than face his latest assignment.
Ogre Company is the legion's dumping ground--a motley, undisciplined group of monsters whose leaders tend to die under somewhat questionable circumstances. That's where Ned's rather unique talents come in. As Ogre Company's newly appointed commander, Ned finds himself in charge of such fine examples of military prowess as a moonstruck Amazon, a very big (and very polite) two-headed ogre, a seductively scaly siren, a blind oracle who can hear (and smell) the future, a suicidal goblin daredevil pilot, a walking tree with a chip on its shoulder, and a suspiciously goblinesque orc.
Ned has only six months to whip the Ogre Company into shape or face an even more hideous assignment, but that's not the worst of his problems. Because now that Ned has found out why he keeps returning from dead, he has to do everything he can to stay alive. . . .
In the Company of Ogres does for fantasy, what A. Lee Martinez's previous novel, Gil's All Fright Diner, did for horror--and elves and goblins may never be the same!
Description:
An uproarious new novel in the tradition of Robert Asprin and Terry Pratchett!
For someone who's immortal, Never Dead Ned manages to die with alarming frequency--he just has the annoying habit of rising from the grave. But this soldier might be better dead than face his latest assignment.
Ogre Company is the legion's dumping ground--a motley, undisciplined group of monsters whose leaders tend to die under somewhat questionable circumstances. That's where Ned's rather unique talents come in. As Ogre Company's newly appointed commander, Ned finds himself in charge of such fine examples of military prowess as a moonstruck Amazon, a very big (and very polite) two-headed ogre, a seductively scaly siren, a blind oracle who can hear (and smell) the future, a suicidal goblin daredevil pilot, a walking tree with a chip on its shoulder, and a suspiciously goblinesque orc.
Ned has only six months to whip the Ogre Company into shape or face an even more hideous assignment, but that's not the worst of his problems. Because now that Ned has found out why he keeps returning from dead, he has to do everything he can to stay alive. . . .
In the Company of Ogres does for fantasy, what A. Lee Martinez's previous novel, Gil's All Fright Diner, did for horror--and elves and goblins may never be the same!
From Publishers Weekly
If the members of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch and Robert Asprin's Phule's Company were conscripted into Mary Gentle's Grunts, the result would be something like this caustic genre-parodying second novel from Martinez (Gil's All-Fright Diner). Never Dead Ned is an accountant whose only talent is self-resurrection. Chosen to lead the notorious Ogre Company, Ned ingratiates himself by dying before the senior officers can finish conspiring to kill him, and comes back to life just in time to be caught up in a battle with Rucka, the world's most powerful demon. Martinez loves turning conventions upside-down: Ned is unbearably uncharismatic, Rucka is 19 inches tall, the wizard Belok is allergic to magic. That makes the predictable elements-the self-sacrificing supernatural guardian, the inevitable love triangle, Ned's world-changing destiny-seem even more hackneyed, somewhat diminishing the power and fun of the "gotchas." Once Martinez learns to strike that balance, he'll be a humorist to be reckoned with.
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From Booklist
Never Dead Ned has died 49 times but can't seem to stay dead. Afraid of death, anyway, he found a safe niche as an accountant for Brute's Legion. Upper management transfers him to command Ogre Company, the legion's dumping ground. He has one advantage over previous commanders: no matter what accident befalls, he comes back alive. And then he finds out why he never stays dead, after which he has to go to any length not to die again. That's harder than it seems when commanding such stellar specimens as a two-headed ogre, an orc who's oversensitive about looking like a goblin, a daredevil pilot goblin (and the not very trainable rocs he flies), a siren, a temperamental Amazon, and an oracle who hears and smells the future. Still, he has six months to whip Ogre Company into shape. Oh, for the love of Ned! Martinez's follow-up to Gil's All-Fright Diner (2005) is as joyfully fast paced and funny. Ogre Company tweaks fantasy cliches most excellently. Regina Schroeder
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